Your paper must be about rap music, but it can be about rap music from any era or place, not limited to what we covered in class. However, your paper should demonstrate your ability to apply what we learned in class about rap music and history to your particular topic.
At least 2,500 words
Written in complete sentences and paragraphs with a clear sense of organization
Your own thesis statement, opinion, or interpretation should drive the paper – don’t just report on your research
Use and analyze rap songs as examples in your paper
If your paper is on something we covered in class, be sure to go beyond what we learned about it in class.
At least five sources, two of which must be scholarly sources. Do not just use the assigned readings from class. The non-scholarly sources can be journalistic articles and books, interviews, and “field work” (i.e., anthropological observation). Definitely use the Lehman library search engine to find sources, not just Google.
A properly formatted bibliography at the end of your paper, in the bibliographical style you are most comfortable with.
In addition to the bibliography at the end, cite your sources within the paper using whatever citation style you are most comfortable with.
Topics:
Pick a rap artist (a DJ, producer, rapper, or rap group) and write a paper that addresses:
What is their musical style?
How do they fit within rap history? (Do they fit into a particular subgenre or era? How did they affect rap music?)
What messages and meanings are in their music?
What was the response to their music (from the media, fans, government, haters, etc.)? What controversies did their music generate?
How is their personal biography relevant to their music?
If picking this topic, don’t write a “fan bio.”
Pick a specific era, style, or subgenre of rap and write a paper that addresses:
What were the social conditions and historical context of it and how did it respond to those conditions and that context?
What are its defining musical features?
What are its predominant messages and meanings?
What was its position within the music industry and hip-hop culture?
How does it fit within, and how did it change, rap history?
Some examples of eras, styles, and subgenres you could pick (but feel free to choose something not on this list): 1970s Bronx DJ culture, old school rap, the drum machine era, conscious rap, gangsta rap, G-funk, boom-bap, “mack rap,” Dirty South rap, trap, drill.
Pick a social/political/cultural topic that can be analyzed in relation to rap music. Your paper should use a few (not too many) specific examples, including songs, from rap history to develop your analysis. Examples of topics include (but are not limited to):
Women’s position within and/or gender and rap
The music industry’s treatment of rap (exploitation (especially of Black music and musicians), independent record labels, business practices)
Criminalization, policing, and/or prisons and rap
The Reagan 80s and rap
Place, neighborhood, and region
Rebellion and/or protest and rap
The Clinton 90s and rap
Censorship and rap
Black nationalism and rap
Music-making technology and rap
Youth and generational conflict and rap
Music analysis of rap: If picking this topic, your paper should analyze flow style(s) and/or beat styles in rap, with a narrow enough focus to write a good paper at the end of the semester (i.e., probably only one artist and only one or a few songs). You should use some form of musical transcription, such as beat labeling, describing beat layers, or transcribing rap music in some form of music notation.
If you have an idea for a paper that does not fit within any of the above topics, please email me. More than anything else, the final paper is an opportunity for you to explore something about rap music and history that interests you.
If you don’t use the Lehman Library search engine as part of finding your sources, you will not receive a passing grade on this assignment.
The Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide is free online and shows you how to properly cite sources in different styles: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
You will need to log into my school library to find 2 out of the 5 scholarly sources
lehman college
message me for username and password
